One of the tedious and difficult tasks for parents and teachers in the rearing of young children involves the teaching of shoelace tying. The laces are difficult to manipulate and the shoelace knot is relatively intricate and often challenging to children with small hands. The problem also exists in the care and instruction of persons who are learning impaired for a variety of reasons. While the task is difficult enough on children having normal learning abilities, a great number of children are burdened with learning disabilities or physical handicaps which further exacerbate the problem.
In addition to the difficulties resulting from the youth or reduced capacity of the learner, the process of teaching the learner is made more difficult due to the positions required to manipulate laces on the learner's shoes when they are placed on the learner's feet. The learner and the teacher must frequently get into difficult positions and, for many learners, the shoes themselves are hard to reach due to physical limitations, excessive weight and so on. The process is further encumbered by the fact that the teacher and the learner are usually on opposite sides of the shoe and instructions characterized as right or left must be adjusted by the teacher to provide accurate communication to the learner.
For years teachers and parents have attempted to meet these difficulties through various devices and teaching methods. These have included the use of poems or limericks to aid in memorizing the intricate shoelace knot. Also, those instructing learners have often removed the learner's shoe and have tied it in their lap or the learner's lap to improve the teaching process. Practitioners in the art have developed various teaching aids including shoe-like teaching aids and instructions intended to provide entertainment as well as teaching. Some of the developed teaching aids are enlarged and have exaggerated laces, lace holes and shoe tongues to aid the learner.
While the previously developed devices and methods provide assistance in the training process, there remains a need in the art for an improved training aid for shoelace tying.